Ranchi, July 6: An 80km ring road project, meant to decongest traffic within the capital’s city limits, is unlikely to be completed in the next couple of years with one of the contractors, having already missed the June 11 deadline, crying out for more time.

A joint venture between Somdatt Builders and Shrinet & Shandilya, the contractor has applied for a year’s extension of the deadline to complete phase VII of the six-lane ring road connecting NH 75 (Ranchi-Daltonganj road near Kathi Tand in the outskirts of Ranchi) with NH 33 (Ranchi-Hazaribagh road near Vikas Vidyalaya).

But, state road construction department engineers are sceptical. Even if the government granted the contractor a year’s extension, they feel, the project would still not be ready.

“A little over half (55 per cent) the road laying work is over in phase VII that is 23 km long. Only one of the nine bridges on the route is anywhere near completion, while only 24 out 75 culverts are ready. The progress is far from satisfactory,” said Umesh Kumar Sinha, the Ranchi division executive engineer of the road construction department.

Former chief minister Madhu Koda laid the foundation stone of the Rs 155 crore outer ring road project in 2007. It could not be completed within the scheduled time period due various problems, including protest by villagers in Nagri in Kanke over land acquisition, delays by contractors and lack of monitoring by the state government.

The original deadline of the project was 2010, which was extended by a year last year. Now, the project looks like getting delayed further, having already hit various other road block.

Work on phase I and II of the project, which was later included in the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI)-sponsored Rs 1,500 crore four-laning project of the Ranchi-Jamshedpur leg of NH-33, is still at a nascent stage.

Despite NHAI awarding the project to construction major Madhucon Projects Limited in March, the agency is yet to start work.

But, the remaining four phases — III, IV, V and VI — have seen fairly good (60 per cent) progress. The deadline for these stretches, monitored by Jharkhand Accelerated Road Development Company Limited (JARDCL), is June 2012.

Engineer-in-chief of state road construction department Ram Naresh Raman was unwilling to speculate on the fate of the company handling phase VII. “Let the proposal of extension reach us. The departmental secretary will decide on whether to grant the extension or not,” he said.